HOLD BACK TOMORROW

John Agar and Cleo Moore

HOLD BACK TOMORROW (1955). Written, produced and directed by Hugo Haas. 

In an unspecified foreign country, a former hooker, Dora (Cleo Moore), is saved from drowning herself on the very eve that a prisoner named Joe Cardos (John Agar) -- who murdered three people -- is to be executed. Joe wants company for his final request, and since Dora needs money -- or hopes that Joe will strangle her -- she agrees to entertain him in his cell. Joe proves to be grumpy and hostile, and Dora is not certain she even wants to bother trying to make friends with him. But somehow these two dysfunctional individuals manage to form an unlikely romantic attachment to one another (sexual, maybe) ...

Even on Death Row Agar looks great!

Let me make it clear that I can hardly call the utterly-contrived Hold Back Tomorrow a good movie, but it also isn't worthless. Although I can't quite say that Agar is outstanding, he probably gives his best performance in this movie and gets his character across quite well. In her career Moore has rarely risen above mediocrity -- it's almost comical when she says "I haven't eaten for days" but is completely unable to get this across in her acting -- but she is also much better in this film than in others, possibly because her co-star was giving it his all. Agar also looks handsomer than usual.

Beautiful when wet: Cleo Moore

Haas' screenplay is a bit nutty and naive but it does have some good dialogue going for it. Although two of the people Joe strangled may have been rotters, there is virtually no mention of the innocent guard he shot during a robbery (the crime that first got him incarcerated) as this might have made him even less sympathetic. Of course Haas could have created more sympathy for Joe if he'd had him expressing some remorse for the dead man and his family. Joe blames everyone else for his misdeeds, and dopey Dora -- not the brightest bulb in the chandelier by any means, although she's certainly smarter and nicer than Joe -- goes right along with it, swallowing every word. 

Moore and Agar look to the heavens

I won't give away the ending except to say that I find it unlikely that Joe and Dora would ever have really made it as a couple. Whatever their struggles or problems early in life, one can tell that neither have the wherewithal to make much of anything work for them. One of the most amusing aspects of the flick is that Frank DeKova, of all people, plays the prison priest! Harry Guardino has an early role as a cop. The title tune for the picture is rather pleasant. Haas also teamed Moore and Agar up for his earlier film Bait, which is even worse than this! 

Verdict: Certainly an interesting idea and a truly odd romance, but the movie is half-baked and not really credible despite some decent performances. I didn't find it remotely moving. At least it is not an anti-capital punishment polemic. **.  

THE NIGHT DIGGER

Patricia Neal and Nicholas Clay

THE NIGHT DIGGER (1971). Director: Alastair Reid. Screenplay by Roald Dahl, from the novel "Nest in a Falling Tree" by Joy Cowley.  

Maura Prince (Patricia Neal of The Hasty Heart) lives with her blind and difficult adoptive mother, Edith (Pamela Brown of Personal Affair), in a rambling mansion in England. Maura also works with stroke patients part-time at the hospital, and the doctor, Ronnie (Sebastian Breaks), wishes she would work full-time and hire a companion for her mother. Both mother and daughter do wind up with a companion when a young man named Billy (Nicholas Clay of Evil Under the Sun), shows up wanting room and board in exchange for gardening and fixing up the house. Maura is opposed to the idea but the contrary Edith agrees to take him in. As time proceeds Maura comes to care deeply for Billy, but she has no idea of what he's getting up to in the nighttime. It all comes to a head when Edith, after an accident, insists that Billy leave, and Maura comes to a fateful decision. 

Nicholas Clay

The Night Digger is the rare suspense-thriller -- if that's what you can call it -- that presents three-dimensional characters with back stories and idiosyncrasies (of course Billy's character takes it a step farther). The movie eventually turns into a dark and twisted romance between a lonely woman who looks years older than her age, and a young man whose psychological problems are far worse than she could ever imagine. The film is bolstered by three excellent lead performances -- as well as a sharp turn from Jean Anderson as friend and neighbor, Millicent, among others --  and moody cinematography from Alex Thomson. Bernard Herrmann's score is a bit problematic, as apparently the film was cut after completion and some of the score was inadvertently jettisoned. What we're left with sounds like snippets from previous Herrmann movies. A bit of politically-incorrect humor -- by today's standards -- has to do with one character suggesting that the minister's wife (Yootha Joyce), who has more on the ball than he does, should have been born a man, leading to Edith wrongly assuming that she and her husband are both going to have sex-change operations. Roald Dahl and Neal were still married when this film was made.

Verdict: Unusual dark if strangely poetic psychological study with great performances. ***.   

WHITE MISCHIEF

Greta Scacchi

WHITE MISCHIEF (1987). Director: Michael Radford.

In 1940 beautiful young Diana (Greta Scacchi of Shattered) has married the much-older Jock Broughton (Joss Ackland of Crescendo) and moves with him to Kenya. There the couple are part of a wealthy or would-be wealthy social set that includes rampaging lover boy Joss, Lord Errol (Charles Dance of Alien 3). It isn't long before Diana and Joss begin a highly indiscreet affair that has tongues wagging, and reaches the ears of Jock. Apparently resigning himself to the fact that his wife and Joss are in love, he agrees to step aside and even toasts the couple. But that same night one of these three people is found dead on a highway, and a murder trial ensues ... 

Scacchi with Charles Dance

White Mischief is inspired by true events that led to a fictionalized book of the same title. The characters are all one-dimensional, but that may be because they are especially superficial people, the two illicit lovers in particular. The performances, however, are quite good, with Ackland a stand-out. This is another movie which tries to present Charles Dance -- a good actor who is not especially good-looking -- as a male sex symbol. The real Lord Errol was actually better-looking than Dance -- the same is true of the real Broughton and Ackland -- although the glamorized Scacchi is much sexier than the real Diana. 

Old pals: Joss Ackland and Trevor Howard

The movie has a few intriguing scenes, such as a party in which the guests, both men and women, are required to dress in drag. A very bizarre, even gross, scene, has Alice (Sarah Miles) pleasuring herself as she stands over a corpse of a man she once loved. Murray Head plays Alice's boyfriend, and John Hurt is a weird farmer named Colville who is also attracted to Diana. Geraldine Chaplin flits in and out of the action without making much of an impression, and Trevor Howard -- who nearly got fired because of his drinking -- is fine as a dissolute friend of Broughton's. Hugh Grant appears briefly at the beginning of the film as one of Diana's lovers. White Mischief holds the attention but never fully engages the viewer. 

Verdict: Rich Caucasians behaving badly. **1/2. 

BRITANNIA MEWS

Maureen O'Hara and Dana Andrews

BRITANNIA MEWS (aka The Forbidden Street/1949). Director: Jean Negulesco.

In Victorian England Adelaide Culver (Maureen O'Hara of The Parent Trap), who comes from a wealthy family, falls in love with her painter-teacher, Henry Lambert (Dana Andrews of Where the Sidewalk Ends), and decides to marry him. The two reside in an area of tenements known as Britannia Mews, which Adelaide has been fascinated by since girlhood. Henry, who has made a group of intricate puppets that Adelaide has no use for, gets little work done and drinks too much, a situation that leads to tragedy. Blackmailed by an ugly and pitiful old woman known as "the Sow," (Dame Sybil Thorndike of The Prince and the Showgirl), Adelaide figures she has little to look forward to in life until she meets a man named Gilbert Lauderdale (also Dana Andrews), who bears a strange resemblance to Henry.

O'Hara and Andrews

Britannia Mews, which was rechristened The Forbidden Street for, presumably, box office reasons, is an odd picture that goes in a lot of different directions but on the other hand is entirely unpredictable. It's completely absorbing, although one can't say that it's completely satisfying. The performances are quite good, however. Andrews was supposedly angry that his voice was dubbed in British prints, but in the print I saw the dubbed voice was only used for bearded Henry, not clean shaven Gilbert, so this may have been intentional all along; in any case it's an excellent job of dubbing by the uncredited actor. Dame Sybil Thorndike, made up to look like the most hideous of harridans, certainly scores as Mrs. Mounsey, AKA the Sow. Anthony Tancred is also effective as Adelaide's sympathetic brother, Treff. Wilfrid Hyde-White has a small role as their father. This has an interesting score by Malcolm Arnold.

Verdict: Interesting aspects to this, but one can't quite escape the impression that this is just a well-polished bodice-ripper with pretensions. **3/4. 

SOMETHING WILD (1961)

Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker

SOMETHING WILD (1961). Director/co-screenplay: Jack Garfein.

Mary Ann Robinson (Carroll Baker of Bridge to the Sun) walks home from work one evening, and is pulled into the bushes and raped. This traumatic experience leads into a series of strange actions, such as her leaving home without telling her mother (Mildred Dunnock) or stepfather (Charles Watts), taking a job in a five and dime store in another neighborhood, and moving into a cramped "apartment" about the size of a closet. One afternoon on the Brooklyn Bridge she tries to throw herself into the river, but she is stopped by the intervention of a worker named Mike (Ralph Meeker). But this apparently kind stranger may have even more problems than Mary Ann does and she finds herself locked in his apartment ...

Carroll Baker

Something Wild was based on a novel named Mary Ann and directed (and co-written) by theater man Jack Garfein, who was married to Carroll Baker at the time. Baker is deglamourized in this and generally gives a good performance, as does Meeker, although both are given rather impossible characters to play. I believe the film is trying to say that two damaged individuals can find love with each other, but there's a big difference in being a (rape) victim and being (in essence) someone who commits criminal actions like holding someone against their will, so turning this into a "love" story -- and yes the film does try to make us believe this has a happy and romantic ending -- would be almost as ludicrous as having Mary Ann fall in love with her rapist (who never shows up after the opening sequence). Apologists for the film -- and there are many -- try to suggest that Mike only locked Mary Ann in because he didn't want her killing herself, but she could just have easily killed herself in the apartment and his motives for keeping her a prisoner aren't nearly so noble.

Cinematography by Eugene Shufftan

The shame of it is that this hopelessly muddled, even offensive film has a lot going for it. In addition to the leads we have notable work by Mildred Dunnock as the concerned if ineffectual mother; Jean Stapleton as a slatternly neighbor of Mary Ann's; Doris Roberts as a co-worker at the five and dime who is put off by what she perceives as Mary Ann's stuck-up attitude; Martin Kosleck [The Flesh Eaters] as the somewhat sleazy landlord; and others. The film has a highly interesting score by no less than Aaron Copland [The Heiress], and is strikingly photographed in black and white by Eugen Shufftan, who makes the most of some very familiar New York City locations. Shufftan gives the film a very grim and intense atmosphere throughout. Garfield's direction is good if imperfect. He only directed one other movie, The Strange One. 

Despite all the notable aspects, Something Wild is done in by its contrivances. One suspects the plot was concocted before the characters were conceived, and -- in the film, at least -- they are never developed all that well.

Verdict: Should these two sick individuals get married? Where is Dr. Phil when you need him? **. 

SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH

Olivera Markovic and Ljuba Tadic

SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH (aka Sibirska Ledi Magbet1962). Director:  Andrzej Wajda

In the Russian district of Mtsensk, Katerina (Olivera Markovic) lives a comparatively bleak existence with her husband, Zinovij (Miodrag Lazarevic), who is usually absent, and her grumpy, awful father-in-law, Izmajlow (Bojan Stupica). One day comes an attractive laborer named Sergei (Ljuba Tadic), who makes a play for Katerina that she only momentarily rebuffs. Trying to hold on to a life together, the couple commit an increasingly terrible series of murders, then discover that the land they thinks belongs to them actually belongs to a child nephew. Just how far will these passionate lovers go to hold on to what they've acquired  ...? Siberian Lady Macbeth is based on a story by Sveta Lukic, which was also the basis for Dmitri Shostakovitch's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. If anything, this Yugoslavian film is even more hard-hitting than the opera, uncompromising, powerful and at times horrifying to the extreme. The performances are excellent, and the film is well-directed and photographed, with a highlight being the climactic prison march. The compelling film is one of those movies, told from the point of view of people devoid of conscience, that almost -- almost -- makes you feel sorry for them at times (the fact that most of the victims are somewhat odious helps in that regard), but you'll ultimately feel that they get their just desserts in a very grim and pitiless finale. Remade as Lady Macbeth in 2016 with the setting transferred to England. 

Verdict: Dark, sombre, fascinating -- a near-masterpiece. ***1/2.